Luxembourg Marathon Race Report
On Saturday 30th May 2015 at 7pm I lined up for the ING Luxembourg Night Marathon. I ran a personal best of 2h 57m 19s and came 19th overall. I did the first half in 1:27:34 and the second in 1:29:45. Result and photos.
What preparation did I do generally?
- I followed the 55 mile program from Advanced Marathoning by Pfitzinger & Douglas
- Bought some new racing flats 6 weeks out (in New York because it's cheaper)
- Stopped swimming and did less cycling
How did I prepare for this specific marathon?
- Hilly course - Do as many runs around hilly Surrey as possible. Start and finish strong when running to and from my old flat on Putney Hill.
- Evening race -
- Obviously ran after work a lot and did a bunch of long weekend runs on Saturday evening
- Expected melatonin levels (natural hormone that is created when the sun goes down and makes us sleepy) as the race progressed and to feel more tired than I actually was.
- Didn't walk too much during the day. Learnt this from long days at rowing regattas in my youth.
- Winding* route - Practice running routes that wiggled around. I did one that crossed over every bridge of the Thames (link) and another that wiggled all over Hyde Park (link).
Difficulties during training:
- Was Best Man at a my best friend's wedding in January
- Skiied twice
- Sister got married in March
- Went to New York for a week for work in April
- Had 2-3 weeks of low mileage from a painful calf
All but the last of the difficulties I planned for. For example I took the Friday before my sister's wedding off and did my long run that morning.
Tam and I arrived on the Friday afternoon on a very delayed easyjet flight. We left it until Saturday morning to pick up my race number then had a stroll around the old part of Lux to recce the course. After lunch we slept. Well I tried but instead spent a couple of hours lying in bed looking over my training, calculating predicted race time, looking at the course again etc.
We got to the expo about an hour before the start but even then it was chock-a-block.
The race was really good fun. I started about 20 meters from the start of the race, it took me, like, a whole 20 seconds to cross the line, terrible. The first 8k was mostly downhill to town. I knew I had to/could go faster than race pace for it. Once in town it was a series of loops out and back into the centre. Each time you'd go past the crowds.
At about 15k the half marathon split from the full. Massive crowds, lots of signs and staff, lovely archway, then ...... silence. I'd gone from people all around me to being 50m behind one person and no one behind. I knew this would happen. Luckily over the rest of the marathon I overtook about 6 people each of whom I was able to target.
At one point someone shouted "you're 29th" (interestingly I can't remember if it was in French or English). I was elated. So each person I overtook I knew it would make a big difference.
The other big boosts I got were coming up a long straight and seeing Tam with an orange hat and gel for me. Perfect. (I knew they were not putting on gels and I kinda like them).
From 30km it was all uphill to the finish. I felt great and knew I was going to make 3:05 easily and 3h was looking very good.
I must admit the last 5km was hard, completely alone, much less support and it was basically dark. But it was worth it because I got my name announced as I entered the finishing straight.
That time was good enough to get me a Good For Age place at the London Marathon 2016. So I was doubly pleased.
Next goal is the Prudential ride London in the summer for which I am raising money. More on that later. Tam and I will do some parkruns (Google it) over the summer and start barefoot running.
* I originally wanted to use winedy but that isn't a word (yet)
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